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Grommash Hellscream
Grommash (Grom) Hellscream was the chieftain of the Warsong Clan, and best friend and chief advisor to Warchief Thrall. But he was one of the chieftains who had gladly taken the blood of Mannoroth the Destructor, thus binding the Horde to the Burning Legion - and he would eventually pay the ultimate price to free himself from the curse. =Basic Information= * "Grommash" means "Giant's Heart" in Orcish. * Best friend and advisor of Warchief Thrall. * Grom and Thrall confronted Mannoroth to destroy him near the end of the war against the Burning Legion. Grom was able to bury his axe deep in the creature's chest, but the act unleashed the horrible magic within Mannoroth, and though Mannoroth was killed by the act, so was Grom. * Grom's body was buried in Ashenvale, in the area now known as Demon Fall Canyon - near the site where he and Thrall destroyed Mannoroth. * Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar is named for him, and just outside is the armor of Mannoroth (complete with axe-hole) with a plaque dedicated to Grom. * The Horde's Hellscream In-Game Book, attainable by leaving a candle at the monument in Demon Fall Canyon during the Harvest Festival. * He was a Blademaster. thumb| =History= One of the Orc Chieftains of legend. Prior to the creation of the Dark Portal, Grom Hellscream was the uncontested leader of the Warsong clan, marked by his slim build and black-tattooed lower jaw. Suspicions floated away the previous chieftain's death, giving rise to the notion that Grom usurped the position, rather then gain it though heredity like Durotan. Though he was stubborn, he was the first to give heed to the prospect of war when Ner'zhul warned the other clans of a "new old enemy", the Draenei. While his clan was spared the defeats of the Second Great War, he was used with effectiveness by Ner'Zhul in the aftermath of the second war. His forces combined with that of the Bleeding Hollow clan led by Kilrogg Deadeye were used in strategic hit and run raids designed to retrieve some of Azeroth's most powerful magical artifacts. Grom Hellscream is playable in missions of Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal. His clan is also clearly evident throughout the human campaigns. His missions in the Warcraft II expansion include destroying a rogue Ogre Mage Warlord, Mogor, and the Temple of the Damned that this Ogre defended. Grom is one of a few heroes of the Orcish Horde that makes a reappearance in both the ill-fated Warcraft Adventures game and the Lord of the Clans novel which both roughly lay out the same story. With the destruction of their only passage home and the successful vanquishing of the Orcish strike forces, Grom and the Warsong clan were forced into hiding in the wilds of Lordaeron. They eked out an existence on the edge of human civilization for nearly 15 years. All of this time, Grom was forced to fight the demonic curse that had left him weakened and listless. Where other Orcs gave into this malaise, Grom fought it to the end of his days. As the number of free Orcs was diminished by conflict and old age, their situation looked more and more hopeless. The young and weak were unable to thrive in this harsh environment and the day of reckoning looked to be closing in on the Warsong clan. Then Grom had a young Orc named Thrall seek him out. Inspired by Thrall's courage, strength and mercy, he accepted the young outcast and taught Thrall more of the ways of the Orc nations. When the humans searching for Thrall got too close, Thrall left his side. He was given Grom's necklace as a symbol of the trust placed in Thrall by Grom. The Warsong clan led by Grom was reunited with Orgrim Doomhammer and Thrall's lost clan, the Frostwolves. Battling against the Human internment camps surrounding the stronghold of Durnholde, the two clans set about freeing and reinvigorating the Orcish nations. While the Orcish horde was looking for land to settle on in Lordaeron, they were instructed by the new Warchief Thrall to journey across the seas to the strange new continent of Kalimdor. When Grom began to again feel the twinge of the demonic curse, he proved unable to resist the sweet nectar it promised him. After disobeying orders from his Warchief, he was given what was presumed to be an easy, out of the way mission to clear land and gather lumber for the new Horde's settlement. However, the Night Elves were angered when Grom's orcs began to cut down the trees in Ashenvale Forest and attacked without explanation. He recieved help from the Goblin Neeloc Greedyfingers who gave him Goblin Shredders for killing a Furbolg. The Warsongs under Grom managed to successfully defend themselves and kill their attackers...but by doing so they caught the attention of the demigod Cenarius. Determined to avenge the deaths of the Night Elves who had fallen against the Warsong Clan and protect the forest from what he saw as further desecration, Cenarius attempted to slaughter the orcs. Cenarius appeared to know something of the history of the orcs and was convinced they were "demon-spawned wretches" who deserved only death. In an exchange with the demigod during one skirmish Grom vehemently told him that the orcs no longer served any demons, but Cenarius didn't believe him and continued his attempts to kill them all. The orcs quickly discovered that Cenarius was invulnerable to conventional attacks. Death at Cenarius' hands seemed inevitable. One of the troll witch doctors accompanying the Warsong Clan told Grom he sensed strange energies nearby which might be able to aid them in defeating Cenarius. When Grom investigated he discovered a fountain of blood. This was the doing of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, who had originally enslaved the orcs after Gul'dan convinced them to drink his blood with promises of power. Mannoroth saw Cenarius as a formidable obstacle standing in the way of the Burning Legion, as he had been during the War of the Ancients. The demon poured more of his blood into the fountain on a suggestion from Tichondrius, hoping that the orcs would once again drink it and become sufficiently re-energized with demonic power to kill Cenarius. There was also another reason Mannoroth hoped they would partake of his blood.... When Grom brought his troops to the fountain, the witch doctor told him that he could sense that the fountain contained demonic energy. One of Grom's soldiers told him that if they drank from the fountain they would be going against everything they had been taught by Thrall. But to Grom these things did not matter. Desperate to preserve his clan from this new threat, Grom drank from the fountain and either persuaded or forced those under his command to do likewise. Driven again by the demonic energies, Grom attacked and destroyed the demigod Cenarius' forces. Even the demigod himself was no match for the enraged orc chieftain's demon-enhanced might. After Cenarius fell, Mannoroth appeared. By drinking the Blood of Mannoroth once again, the Warsong Clan were once again susceptible to the vile Pit Lord's control. When Mannoroth told him this Grom was horrified, but that horror was one of his final independent thoughts before Mannoroth exercised control and turned Grom and the rest of the clan into his slaves, causing them to despise Thrall and the rest of the Horde and make war on them and the humans under Jaina Proudmoore, whom Thrall had since allied with. Determined to save his old friend, Thrall (with the help of Cairne Bloodhoof and his tauren) managed to capture Grom and bring him to Jaina, who worked with other magic-users from both her forces and Thrall's to perform a ritual that would free him from the Legion's control. While the ritual was being performed, Grom told Thrall the horrible truth of the Demonic curse. The Orc Clan Chieftains had willingly taken the bloodlust offered by the Burning Legion. They were not so much cursed as doomed by the willing choices made by their power-hungry leaders. The redemption of Grom Hellscream was close at hand however. Enraged by the awful secret of the Orc's spiral into bloodlust and hate, Thrall led Grom into a canyon to seek out the demon Mannoroth and end the corruption that was once again visited on them. A mighty blow from Thrall's warhammer was shrugged aside by the massive demon, whose counterattack left the young Warchief stunned and semi-conscious. Driven by sheer force of will, desperation, and desire for an ending to his suffering, Grom Hellscream made his last charge. His axe struck home and the resulting destruction of the demon lord caused a massive explosion. Standing very near the dying Mannoroth and hit by the full force of the explosion, Grom was mortally wounded by the terrific energies unleashed by Mamoroth's passing. His head held in his friend Thrall's hands, the burning flames of the demonic corruption were quenched. Grom turned to Thrall and told him he was finally free of the corruption that had stalked him for so long. Then his body surrendered to its wounds and Grom Hellscream died. With Mannoroth destroyed, the Burning Legion was no longer able to exercise any influence over the orcs and the entire race was finally cured of all the symptoms of the blood pact, whether it was simple lack of energy or being turned into puppets as the Warsongs were. Truly, all orcs who had ever consumed the blood of Mannoroth (or who were tainted by their chieftains doing so) owe the late Grom Hellscream a great debt. ---- Just How Old Is Grom Hellscream? Grom Hellscream is an interesting case study in the changing timelines of the Warcraft universe. In the Warcraft III manual, Grom is dated at age 46. He is also listed as "…one of the first orcs to fall victim to the demons' curse on his race." Now this is very interesting, because that means that Grom has survived from the initial Burning Legion impressions on the orcs, clear through both great wars to the beginning of the Reign of Chaos. In the original game's manual, we get the history of the world of Warcraft to the present date. This history is as transcribed by Garona of the Shadow Council. She details the initial portal rifts as taking a period of time for the Orc Warlocks to secure passage for a single clan. At this point, we can start a timer. Garona tells her audience that the Shadow Council had made a "… request that they cease their war other orc clans for one year." The Orc clans push through a host of warriors that attack the nation of Azeroth's seat of power, Stormwind Keep. There they are pushed back by the magics of the human mages. Then, according to Garona, "It has been some fifteen years since this costly decision altered the course of our destiny." She has described there 16 years of history. Between the First War in the game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and the Second War in the game Warcraft II, it is well established that six years pass. That makes 22 years since the opening of the rift. Since we can't seem to date the length of time between the end of the Second War, we'll have to use the dating from the Warcraft III manual. Here's where it gets interesting again. According to the Warcraft III manual, Thrall is discovered "during the dark days of the First War" and that he escapes from Durnholde, "Nineteen years passed…" In the novel "Lord of the Clans" it takes Thrall about one year from his escape to his bittersweet and triumphant return to his childhood home. That gives us 20 years from the end of the First War. In this timeline, Grom would have had to be chieftain of his tribe at a maximum age of ten years old. The Monument to Grom Hellscream Located in the southeastern part of Ashenvale, there stands a monument to Grom Hellscream, located presumably at the spot he was slain in the aftermath of Mannoroth's death. The exact coordinates are 82,78 and the inscripion reads as such: :Here lies Grommash Hellscream, Chieftan of the Warsong Clan. :In many ways, the curse of our people began and ended with Grom. His name meant "Giant's Heart" in our ancient tongue. He earned that name a hundered-fold as he stood alone before the demon Mannoroth - and won our freedom with his blood. :Lok'Tar Ogar, Big Brother, may the Warsong never fade. :: - Thrall, Warchief of the Horde Statistics of Grom Hellscream from Warcraft II * 240 HP (+300% more than a regular Grunt) * Armor 8 (+300% more than a regular Grunt) * Damage 3-22 (+19% more than a regular Grunt) * Range 1 (same as a regular Grunt) * Sight 5 (+25% more than a regular Grunt) * Speed 10 (same as a regular Grunt) =See Also= * Book Warcraft: Lord of the Clans & The Rise of the Horde, by Christie Golden * Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal * Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Hellscream, Grom Hellscream, Grom Hellscream, Grom Hellscream, Grom Hellscream, Grom Category:Old Heroes Category:Warcraft II units